Did you come up with a (first) fursona before or after you joined the fandom?

[Foxridley]

So, there are a fair number of threads in the "Fursona discussion" subforum where someone, usually new to the furry fandom, asks for help or advice in creating a fursona. This is different from my experience, since I went through a few OC ideas, which might be considered fursonas, before I discovered the furry fandom and it wasn't until a bit later that I considered myself a furry. I had nothing on paper or in a digital file, but I had the characters in my head.

For some, I imagine, it could have started as a fan character or something like that. So, folks, which came first for you? Furry or fursona?

 

[Punji]

I feel I was very much in the same boat.

I suppose one could say furries came first with animated movies and such for me at an early age, progressing to me eventually starting to imagine myself as an anthro character. However it wasn't until a little while later that I discovered the fandom, and maybe a few years still until I considered myself a furry proper.

 

[ben909]

pokemon mystery dungeon character....

 

[Sappho_Cortez]

This thing. Guess the inspiration...

 

[Inferndragon]

Well in 2012 I started making a dragon character based on myself.
This was my avatar for a while (drew it in MS Paint at the time... Old MS paint was amazing)

eventually started to design a more anthro character:

Most of the features being adopted.
Then more or less joined the fandom later than I should have.

 

[Marius Merganser]

For some, I imagine, it could have started as a fan character or something like that.

I started with a twitter account of one of my favorite cartoon characters but always tweeted in-character because the voice actor followed me shortly after I created it. After picking up some followers, I started commissioning new art because the character hadn't been used in ~20 years and that's when the timeline started filling up with furry art and suiters. That looked like fun and I figured I should make my own character, so as soon as Marius's design was ready to go, I jumped into the fandom.

And the rest is history...

...or at least up until right now, which is the present.

 

[Rimna]

At first, before I joined the fandom - and by that I mean to create an account on FAF and interact with other furries, I had two ideas for fursonas. The very first character I came up with was a deer. Some time later, I decided he should be a bunny. But I never really even wrote those down, let alone "flesh them out". That was between 2008-2015.

At the time I joined FAF, which was 2017, I was already set on a new and final species for my fursona - which is the monkey character you see now. So I guess, I came up with my actual fursona around the time I joined the fandom.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

My original pre-fandom fursona lives on as a character I pull out for D&D games. Brass (actually silver) dragonborn, in a nutshell.

My first two 'serious' OCs were an albino wererat named Rodney (eventually just shortened into a rat anthro that was the result of an experiment) and a blue lizardman named Zukath (he is in fact the Zuri that's in one of the RPs around here - he's evolved quite a bit in backstory).

 

[The_Happiest_Husky]

I had three over time. An owl with an eyepatch, based on Guardians of Gahoole. Then a feral wolf for a long time after reading Wolves of the Beyond. And finally, when I first discovered some furry art but didn't know about the fandom yet, a black furred anthro wolf

 

[SirRob]

Made mine based off my GaiaOnline avatar a little less than a week after I made an account on FurAffinity 14 years ago. That’s nearly half my life and I never changed him nor do I have any desire to.

 

[TrishaCat]

My sona is only a couple years old, while I've been in the fandom since 2013.
I had never heard of fursonas until after I joined the fandom. Didn't make one myself for a while since I didn't think I needed one and represented myself with Elh Melizee, my favorite furry character, instead.

 

[QueenSekhmet]

does eating full packs of halls in hopes that it will give you fire breah like spyro,count?

 

[Mambi]

So, there are a fair number of threads in the "Fursona discussion" subforum where someone, usually new to the furry fandom, asks for help or advice in creating a fursona. This is different from my experience, since I went through a few OC ideas, which might be considered fursonas, before I discovered the furry fandom and it wasn't until a bit later that I considered myself a furry. I had nothing on paper or in a digital file, but I had the characters in my head.

For some, I imagine, it could have started as a fan character or something like that. So, folks, which came first for you? Furry or fursona?

I had my fursona before I even knew what a fursona was.

 

[Foxridley]

I had my fursona before I even knew what a fursona was.

Pretty much what happened with me.

 

[Baron Tredegar]

I had three over time. An owl with an eyepatch, based on Guardians of Gahoole. Then a feral wolf for a long time after reading Wolves of the Beyond. And finally, when I first discovered some furry art but didn't know about the fandom yet, a black furred anthro wolf

I am a big fan of Gahoole, great books and underrated movie. The video game is surprisingly decent too.

I had a Wings of Fire inspired sea dragon named Tempest before I found the fandom.

 

[Casey Fluffbat]

I've mentioned it a lot but I had no idea that furries existed before early 2014, and when I discovered it, I joined it and made a cat fursona not too long after. I still have that fursona, though he has gone over a lot of changes since then.

 

[anxiouscanine1198]

So, there are a fair number of threads in the "Fursona discussion" subforum where someone, usually new to the furry fandom, asks for help or advice in creating a fursona. This is different from my experience, since I went through a few OC ideas, which might be considered fursonas, before I discovered the furry fandom and it wasn't until a bit later that I considered myself a furry. I had nothing on paper or in a digital file, but I had the characters in my head.

For some, I imagine, it could have started as a fan character or something like that. So, folks, which came first for you? Furry or fursona?

Furry came first. When I was younger, around 11 or 12, I was watching fursuit making tutorials and fur suiting videos and was really inspired. I had also been into alot of Disney growing up and animal Halloween costumes. When I disco ered the fandom and the art centered around it, I realized I needed a fursona. I needed a character to have a suit of and identify with in the fandom.

 

[PiedPipecleaner]

Not really sure how I should answer this question tbh. I originally joined FA a few years ago just because somebody said that people would be probably be willing to commission me after seeing my art, but at that point I don’t think I had really associated myself with furries and ultimately I never ended up doing anything with the account until years later. So, while I had an account, I don’t think I was really a furry then and I definitely did not have a sona. I only really started to accept being a furry when my college friends started jokingly calling me one and I was just kinda like “hey actually I guess I am lol maybe I should make a sona and get involved”. I ended up making Quetz, but only after I designed her did I actually join the forums and set up my FA for real.

So short answer: Made an account that sat untouched for years pre-sona, then finally made a sona and joined the community shortly after for real.

 

[Pomorek]

So, there are a fair number of threads in the "Fursona discussion" subforum where someone, usually new to the furry fandom, asks for help or advice in creating a fursona. This is different from my experience, since I went through a few OC ideas, which might be considered fursonas, before I discovered the furry fandom and it wasn't until a bit later that I considered myself a furry. I had nothing on paper or in a digital file, but I had the characters in my head.

For some, I imagine, it could have started as a fan character or something like that. So, folks, which came first for you? Furry or fursona?

Somewhat similar for me. Long before I discovered the fandom, I had somewhat vague fursona-like idea of myself as an anthropomorphic jackal. Only after - to my huge surprise - I've found that there are other folks like me, I gave this idea more mental work and ended up as a striped hyena instead.

Old MS paint was amazing

I know, right? I've made my first furry art in it, some of it pretty NSFW too, and again years before I knew of the fandom.

Pretty mind-blowing to think, how much of the "typical furry stuff" I've re-created completely unknowingly. That's why I think something akin to archetypes must be involved in the whole matter.

 

[Chaosmasterdelta]

What counts as "joining the fandom"?

 

[Foxridley]

What counts as "joining the fandom"?

I guess counting yourself as part of the community and/or signing up on a furry site.

 

[Kinguyakki]

I have had various characters in mind over the years, they come and go as I lose interest in them. I'm well into adulthood now and didn't county myself as part of the fandom until I was almost thirty, though I always made up characters of my own long before that.
Kinguyakki (originally named Stian) is the first character I really created since becoming at all affiliated with the fandom. I've RP'd as him extensively in ongoing medieval-fantasy groups, and have added more details to his backstory.

 

[MaelstromEyre]

I always played at having different characters, had ongoing storylines and daydreams from the time I was a little kid (back in the 80s). That was long before I even knew such a thing as the fandom existed. It was just an interest I had. When I found out that there were other adults who liked the same thing. . .like, LOTS of adults. . .I knew I'd found my place. I started creating and developing Maelstrom around the same time I "joined" the fandom.

 

[KemoNova]

Well, for me it cames at the same time I joined but I have improving her little by little so much that I finally passed into 3 fursonas to find my ultimate one.
I've been a dragon, a lunar cat, a tiger mixed with a dragon to finally go with a singular female blue cat. XD
All that work worth after 2-3 years I guess (or even more).

 

[Xitheon]

The earliest I can remember who was like a fursona was a character I created for Watership Down (the late 90's kiddies version.) She was a white rabbit who hooked up with Hawkbit.

Also a black horse with a white mane who hooked up with Arrow from The Silver Brumby (the 90's kiddies version.)

I can't remember their names but they were basically Mary Sues whose sole purpose was to hook up with hopeless characters.

(I was 11 or 12 and I didn't even know what a furry was.)